Namgoong Seolhwa’s face went pale with shock.

The Tang Clan had fallen.

Because of Tang Hojin alone.

Even though Eunwol had warned her.

That the Blood Lords would move.

She had known, hadn’t she, how dangerous a single Blood Lord could be — that one such figure could bring an entire Central Plain power to ruin.

Even when Eunwol warned, information on that Blood Lord had been scant; precisely for that reason they should have been more careful.

They should have been on guard.

They should.

“Do not waver.”

Her trembling eyes found Namgoong Mucheon, who sat straight before her.

“Hold your resolve. If you falter, those who follow you will collapse.”

Namgoong Mucheon’s words brought the scene in the main hall a moment ago back to her mind.

She remembered the looks on the faces that had watched her. She remembered those who had given her a way through.

“This is only the beginning. The fighting starts now. Their counterattack was expected, was it not?”

Namgoong Seolhwa clenched her fist and nodded.

Namgoong Mucheon was right.

There is no war without bloodshed.

Although this time they had not known the identity of Tang Hojin and so could not prevent the Tang Clan’s sacrifice, they now knew the identity of this Blood Lord — they would not stand by and watch this happen again.

No — they would not allow it.

To do that, they could not stop here.

“I have something to show you, Grandfather.”

Namgoong Seolhwa drew two sheets of paper from her bosom and handed them to Namgoong Mucheon.

One was a letter from Yu Gang. The other was the map Eunwol had sent, marking the points where the Blood Lords would strike.

“I have a plan.”

Part Three — Chapter 6. Storm Before the Storm

Leaving the Lord’s chamber, Namgoong Seolhwa went straight to her quarters to pack.

A familiar face waited at her door.

“Ryeong!”

Ryeong made a formal bow to Namgoong Seolhwa.

“It has been a while, Miss. Have you been well?”

Namgoong Seolhwa took Ryeong’s hand and raised a brow.

Ryeong had remained with the Sado Union in Seolhwa’s stead, posing as the Shadowless Demon God.

Lately Ryeong had not been able to visit for a long time, and she felt guilty about it.

“Sorry. I haven’t been able to pay enough attention, have I?”

“It’s fine. There has been so much to do there that it would have been impossible to keep up with everything.”

“Perfect timing, then. I was about to head that way anyway. I’ll grab the essentials and be out in a moment.”

As Namgoong Seolhwa hurried toward her room, Ryeong called after her.

“Miss.”

Ryeong grasped her wrist and stopped her.

As Namgoong Seolhwa turned to Ryeong, Ryeong’s transmission came through.

[Voice Transmission — Ryeong:] — A contact has requested to meet her.

“......”

Her.

Namgoong Seolhwa immediately knew whom Ryeong meant.

When she and Eunwol exchanged news, they had agreed to pass information through the conduit system.

All contacts were encrypted. When Eunwol informed the conduit, the conduit informed the Haomun, and the Haomun informed Ryeong.

Only Eunwol, the Haomun, and Ryeong knew the meaning of the cipher.

It was the minimum measure to prevent the Blood Cult from tracing contacts with Eunwol.

And at last, a reply to the request she had sent earlier had arrived.

[Voice Transmission — Ryeong:] — The meeting time is five nights from now at night, place: a tavern in Yiyang.

Namgoong Seolhwa pictured the woman.

The wife of Yeon Hwi, and now the Blood Demon’s wife.

The woman who had watched over her when she had been kept in the Blood Cult, stripped of memory.

“I’ll be ready and out in a moment.”

Namgoong Seolhwa nodded with a smile to show she understood.

Ryeong released her hand.

“Very good. I will wait.”

****

Five nights later.

A tavern in Yiyang, Hunan.

The tavern at the hour of the Dog (19:00–21:00) was at its busiest; it was so crowded that a single step could be difficult.

“Hey, over here!! I saved us a table!”

A man waved cheerily at someone and shouted.

The one who answered was a middle-aged man — an ordinary commoner’s face the tavern saw often.

But across from him, disguised with an innermask and having completely concealed her cultivation, was Namgoong Seolhwa.

She had come alone, in case a passing martial artist recognized her.

“Okay—coming now!”

Namgoong Seolhwa sensed the surrounding presences and made her way to the table.

The man across from her, whom the conduit had arranged, greeted her warmly and called the waiter to order dishes.

Namgoong Seolhwa scanned the tavern quickly.

Amid the clamor she found the woman who sat with serene composure.

On the second floor by the window.

A woman alone, shrouded in a red veil that concealed her face, sipping tea with two guards at her side.

It was her.

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — Long time.

The woman holding the teacup paused for a beat.

Through the veil her gaze slowly swept over the guesthouse.

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — I am at the tavern’s first-floor entrance, third table to the right. My appearance is that of a middle-aged man. I will pour water now; watch for it.

Namgoong Seolhwa took the empty cup and poured water naturally.

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — Understood.

At last the woman’s transmission reached Namgoong Seolhwa.

She had found her safely. They had confirmed each other’s positions; now it was time to speak.

The woman turned away from Namgoong Seolhwa and asked.

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — You wished to meet me?

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — I have little time, so I will be direct. Do you retain memories of a previous life?

The woman’s movement halted again.

Namgoong Seolhwa pressed further.

“I will be more specific. Which life is this for you now?”

The woman slowly set down her teacup and sat in thought.

The long silence itself was an answer to Namgoong Seolhwa. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“Is the noodles okay?” came a voice.

“Good. Did you order wine?”

“Oh right, focus. Hey, waiter!”

After a long silence the woman finally spoke.

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — I don’t even remember which number this is.

Namgoong Seolhwa lowered her gaze with the spoon in hand.

As she had suspected, this woman, like the Blood Demon and Sama Cheon, was someone who repeated lives.

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — I cannot solve your curiosity. I myself do not know why this endless cycle continues.

There was a hint of sadness in the woman’s tone.

Perhaps she, too, was weary of the unending long lives.

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — That is not what I wish to ask you.

“Then what is it?”

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — Does the Blood Demon know that you keep coming back to life?

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — He would not know.

“...!”

A sudden strength gripped Namgoong Seolhwa’s hand on the teacup.

Namgoong Seolhwa had suspected the woman’s return when she had last gone back to the Blood Cult.

After the woman’s words — as if she knew something — Namgoong Seolhwa had doubted, then confirmed via the formation illusion that she had seen the Blood Demon’s past.

But Sama Cheon had never once mentioned ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) that the Blood Demon’s wife returned alongside the two of them.

In all of Sama Cheon’s remarks he had never once referred to her.

So Namgoong Seolhwa had wondered.

Could it be? Could the Blood Demon not know of his wife’s recurrence?

Might he merely think her an ignorant woman who knew nothing?

‘...It was true.’

The Blood Demon did not know of his wife’s recurrence.

[Voice Transmission — Namgoong Seolhwa:] — Why... did you hide it?

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — If it were discovered... I don’t know what he would do.

‘...That person...?’

There was something off about how she said it.

It was not strange to call her husband “that person,” perhaps, but in her tone there was a trace of avoidance, as if she feared the Blood Demon.

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — You asked how many times I have lived. I do not know how many times I have been reborn. And...

She hesitated.

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — I do not know how many times I have died by his hand either.

Namgoong Seolhwa’s expression stiffened; for a moment she forgot to hide her identity.

“Oh—my apologies!”

The man across from her at the table, quick-witted, knocked his cup down in front of Namgoong Seolhwa and hurriedly pretended to wipe it away.

While Namgoong Seolhwa matched his motion, the woman continued.

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — At first his changed behavior was strange to me. Then I happened to see him kill dozens of people.

When she knew nothing, she had thought simply that her husband had become a little sharp.

Then she saw him cut down dozens of bandits with a single stroke and remain indifferent, and she sensed something was terribly wrong.

When he returned home and behaved as if nothing had happened, she felt chills.

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — I tried to take our children and run. He caught us.

The Blood Demon had asked the woman why she tried to flee.

He smelled of blood.

A hideous, fishy stench she had never noticed before.

The woman could not answer.

His blood-filled eyes tightened around her limbs.

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — That day was the first time I lost my life to his hand.

And that was the day my recurrence began.

At the time Sama Cheon did not even know that the Blood Demon’s wife had returned; the Blood Demon struck the Great Law with the sword stained by her blood, and the woman carried all of that memory back into the past.

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — After that I tried to run several times more. Each time I failed, and he killed us again and again.

And each time I came back to life.

It was only natural.

The Blood Demon had looped time for the sake of his wife and children.

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — That is why. Why I aided you.

Because Namgoong Seolhwa’s situation was similar to the woman’s — unable to break free from the Blood Demon — she had projected her own plight onto Namgoong Seolhwa and helped so that Seolhwa might escape.

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — No. The reason I helped you is a single one.

Namgoong Seolhwa felt the woman’s gaze turn to her.

[Voice Transmission — Blood Demon’s wife:] — I thought you could kill him.